YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
We completed our discussion of the Parable of the Two Sons and we interjected some points that are not generally seen in this saying of the Master. As we have been saying here, there is an undiscovered depth of understanding in each of the sayings and parables of Jesus and we are likely just scratching at the surface. Most all of our discovered understanding is however outside of the view of popular Christianity and this thought is, in its own way, indicated in this last parable itself and in our interpretation. This thought has also led to our inclusion of The Great Invocation in yesterday’s post. Though there are new schools of thought emerging in Christianity from time to time, there is a certain stagnation in the church concerning the meanings of scripture and especially the sayings of the Master. Take for example Christian Science and the Unity Church movements; both of these have emerged with a new ‘twist’ on the meaning of scripture and divinity and how it works out in our lives and both are considered as ‘fringe’ beliefs by the mainstream. The teachings of each of these and others has not been accepted by the popular churches and some will even call them cults. Another is the Word of Faith movement within the Pentecostal branches; while this has garnered much more success it is still considered odd and is out of favor with several of the mainstream groups with its teachings on prosperity and their inclusion of ‘speaking in tongues’. These can be seen as examples of some new ideas coming forth which are being ridiculed by much of the popular church and, most of this without regard as to the relative validity of their doctrines or any part their doctrine.
At what point will it be found that a new John the Baptist comes into the world with a new ‘twist’ that will be ignored and of the man himself bringing this we will say that “they laughed him to scorn” (Mark 5:40) to use a gospel reference? We do not know the who and the when of the next prophet and we do not know the how and the when of the return of the Christ yet we seemingly do not care either. Whatever is the doctrine followed by any sect or denomination or cult is likely to be held onto with great effort by those propounding it so that anything new must comply with their basic philosophy or it will be admonished. This was the attitude of the chief priest and the scribes and the Pharisees in Jesus day; this is why John was put down by the religious establishment and this is why Jesus was crucified. That these things were predicted and necessary is not the issue here because those doing this work did not know or did not realize this; they simply did what they did because it was the way of man in that day and, unfortunately, it may still be the way of man today. In the parable, the sons show the ability to change, to repent and think better of a thing as a human trait. We could say that both brothers repented using this understanding; the one repented having said yes and changed him mind and the other repented having said no. Jesus tells us of the religious rulers of the day that they did not repent at all their thoughts and ideas regarding John.
It has been the purpose of this blog from the beginning to take us deeper into the words of the Master and the writings of the apostles and to interpret them in line with man’s natural journey to the Kingdom of God as it is defined by Jesus’ sayings. Much of what we say is contrary to or just ignores some of the founding doctrines of popular Christianity like vicarious atonement, heaven and hell and punishment, the inerrancy of the bible, Satan and demons, the ‘rapture’, resurrection of the dead, the Kingdom of God and the all important fate of the billions who did not and do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It is our objective to break down the veil of symbolism and superstition that prevails in much of the church today for those who are ready to hear ‘something new’ or who are bewildered by the state of the Christian teachings of today. Our ‘something new’ of course is not new at all; it transverses time and place and is inclusive of all religions that are founded in the basic principles of the Universe; Love, Wisdom and Truth. This is ever our test of the validity of any purported spiritual saying or event and is stated for us by the Apostle James this way: “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace” (James 3:13-18).
This brings us to another ‘something new’, as least for some of us, and that is The Great Invocation. This is a prayer that is purported to have come to us through the instruction of the Christ Himself. If we measure the words of this invocation as they appear below against the saying put forth by James above we will find that it fits in perfectly with the ideas of “the wisdom that is from above“. This may not be the view of those who closely adhere to the popular Christian doctrines as this would be found to be outside of their ken and rather alien to their thinking. For us however this should be seen as what it is; a prayer which is as powerful for us today as the Lord’s Prayer was yesterday. Because this is such a departure from the normal ideas of Christian prayer, I have hesitated to bring it to your attention. I do so now because the time seems right and the parable that we have been discussing gave us the necessary understanding regarding ‘something new’. A great writer of esoteric literature, Alice Baily, writes this about The Great Invocation:
“The above Invocation or Prayer does not belong to any person or group but to all Humanity. The beauty and the strength of this Invocation lies in its simplicity, and in its expression of certain central truths which all men, innately and normally, accept—the truth of the existence of a basic Intelligence to Whom we vaguely give the name of God; the truth that behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is Love; the truth that a great Individuality came to earth, called by Christians, the Christ, and embodied that love so that we could understand; the truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the Will of God; and finally the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the Divine Plan work out.“
From here we will begin to break this prayer down and to relate it to the Christian scripture that we all know and especially the gospels and the words of the Master. The first stanza:
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.
Our understanding of the Light above is found in the definition of enlightenment: To make clear to the intellect or conscience; to shed the light of truth and knowledge upon; to furnish with increase of knowledge; to instruct; as, to enlighten the mind or understanding1. We can see this idea in scripture; the writer of Hebrews says of those who have come to the Lord “…those who were once enlightened , and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost” (Hebrews 6:4) and in the Old Testament we see, speaking of Saul’s son Johnathan, that he “…put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened” (1 Samuel 14:27). The first instance shows enlightenment as a heavenly gift…a gift from God that brings one revelation of the Kingdom and the second shows a more everyday revelation so that Johnathan saw something he had not seen before. This is the meaning of the Light that we pray for here; that it will stream forth into the minds of men and throughout the whole of the Earth. It is the Light that reveals the Truth and the Love of God. From the standpoint of these words themselves and the understanding we have of enlightenment and revelation we should see that this is a good thing; that more Light be shed in and through the human family.
But we may here ask what is the source of this Light? what is the Mind of God? and what is the purpose for us in this Light according to scripture? First to purpose; we can put this into the Master’s words which should be considered a commandment for any who deem themselves disciples or aspiring disciples. Jesus tells us “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16); there is no lack of clarity here. We can see the source of this Light as the Soul, the Christ Within, and the Spirit of man. Jesus tells us that “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12) and elsewhere says to us “Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). We should understand here that the Master is telling us of the Light that is streaming into our minds, our consciousness in this Earth life from Him and from the Christ Within which, as we know, is our own link to that Aspect of God, that is Christ. We should also understand that it is through us, the enlightened men of the world, that the Light is able to descend on Earth as we are the “light of the world“, especially when we “let your light so shine before men“. There is a part of a prayer by the Apostle Paul that puts Light this way: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18). This is, from an individual’s perspective, a much similar prayer to The Great Invocation which takes in both the individual perspective and the World view.
The first line of this stanza says From the point of Light within the Mind of God and for this there is no specific reference other than to understand “that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5) and that both of these terms, Light and darkness, are used as designations for the mind of men and then, by extension, of God as well. We should look here again at what we call the Aspects of God and introduce Light into this as the effective nature of the Holy Spirit and that in this Light is the “Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father….” (John 15:26). This should not seem like we are stretching to create an understanding because we know “that God is light” and we know that God is ONE. Light and Truth should be seen as a parts of His manifestation which we do consider as the Holy Spirit through our saying that the Holy Spirit is the Manifestation of God.
So we pray for Light; for Light from the Godhead and for Light from our Christ Within to be shed on our conscious personality. The Christ Within and the Greater Universal Christ are the givers of Light. In the prologue to his Gospel, John tells us of Christ: “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9) and this is the testimony to the givers of Light; Christ is the Light of God and He “lighteth every man” as the Christ Within. When then we as men walk in the Light, that is when we focus on the things of God, this Light is able to stream forth into our ‘minds of men’. Up till this point in life we should see that the Light is part of the prompting of the Soul and it will stream forth into the minds of men with or without the religious aspect. Any of the great minds of our time and of history can be said to be working in the Light as this Light is the source of all revelation and inspiration.
The last line of this invocation is a prayer for the Light to descend on Earth and, as we said earlier, we as men must be a part of this as well as the showering of Light from the Mind of God. As men who have any degree of Light, we must focus ourselves to share that Light with the World by our actions and our demeanor; the Light, as we are commanded, should shine forth in all that we are and in all that we do.
This is the first stanza of The Great Invocation and we never did get to a parable or saying of the Master today. We will get back to these in the next post along with a look at the second stanza on LOVE.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment. If you have not seen this before, this should be viewed as, like John and Jesus to the Jews, something new and different.
The Quote of the Day for today is called The Great Invocation. It is a world prayer given to us by The Christ. We will leave this up and go through it in parts over the coming days. This prayer should be to us today what the Lord’s Prayer was yesterday.
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.
From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.
From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
- 1 Websters Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
